1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for providing cable management within facilities used to house electronic equipment, and more specifically to cable troughs used to manage cables within equipment racks provided in data centers.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Centralized data centers for computer, communications and other electronic equipment have been in use for a number of years, and more recently, with the increasing use of the Internet, large scale data centers that provide hosting services for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs) and Internet content providers are become increasingly popular. Typical centralized data centers contain numerous racks of equipment that require power, cooling and connections to communications facilities. It is common in data centers to use raised flooring, beneath which power cables and communication cables may be run between racks of equipment and to facility distribution panels. In some facilities, in place of, or in addition to the use of raised flooring, overhead cable troughs and ladders are used to route cables throughout the facility. These cable troughs and ladders may be fastened on top of and between equipment racks arranged throughout the facility.
There are several drawbacks with the traditional design of data centers employing raised flooring. For example, raised flooring is expensive and cannot be easily accommodated in some facilities, such as those that do not have high ceilings. In addition, the routing of cables under raised floors often creates “rats nests” and it often becomes difficult, if not impossible, to locate particular cables beneath a raised floor. Further, when it is desired to add new equipment to a data center having a raised floor, it is often difficult to pull cables past existing cables under the floor, and the build up of cables beneath a floor often prevents cooling air from flowing beneath the floor to electronic equipment racks.
Cable distribution troughs and ladders, which run cables above the electronic equipment racks, may be used in place of or in addition to raised flooring. An example of routing cabling between equipment racks by using cable distribution troughs and ladders contained on the roofs of the racks is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,967,283. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional cable trough, generally indicated at 10, which is capable of being mounted on the top or the cover of an equipment rack (not shown). The cable trough 10 shown in FIG. 1 is incapable of being adjusted and may only support a limited number of cables 12, e.g., thirty-five runs of fifty-amp power cables, each having a nominal diameter of 0.85 inches.